Will Someone Please Put the Trout Bum Out of His Misery?
Listen up, marketing geeks - I can’t take it anymore, and I know I’m not alone. If I have to see that got-dam stoopid, tired marketing cliche - the “Trout Bum” being trotted out and peddled through another season, I’m declaring full-on Durka Durka Jihad on the industry.
In a relatively short period of time, we’ve seen the marketing compass swing 180 deg. from targeting grey-haired retired guys ensconced in all the trappings of sprawling McLodges, streamside Cubans and pre-broken-in, River Runs Through It fedoras, to young dudes sleeping in the back of their car streamside, eating a cold can of beans as testament to their dedication. Dog knows I’ve spent a lot of nights sleeping in, under and on top of vehicles myself, and I can’t afford lodges anyway (but not because I’m a “bum”). I’ll give credit where it’s due - it is great that you’re attempting to lure in a younger audience.
But you know what didn’t change at all when that demographic compass swung ’round? The fact that you’re still perpetuating a simplistic, tired stereotype as a means to convince people they need to spend thousands of dollars to get outfitted to go fly fishing. Yes, I know that’s your job, marketing guy. It still sucks.
At the risk of pointing out the obvious;
Someone clad in $2000 worth of your gear is not a “bum.”
Someone who gets sponsored to be sent to the other side of the world to fly fish is not a “bum.”
Someone who has their own line of rods is also not a “bum.”
And certainly, someone who can afford a special, limited-edition $1500 “trout bum” rod from a certain well-known eastern manufacturer is clearly NOT A “BUM.”
In case you’re still confused, this is a bum:
And just to be clear - I’ve got nothing against real bums. Hell, I even have a certain amount of respect for the ones who’ve deliberately chosen that path. But they aren’t going fishing in Kamchatka in $700 waders.
So please - the time is well past to put the mythical “trout bum” out of its psuedo-romantic misery and instead just depict anglers, of all types and whatever economic level, as simply people doing what they love to do without having to wrap it in phony bullshit as some hokey demographic. AEG hung their “trout bum” hats up, maybe it’s time the rest of you do too…
January 26th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I’ll supply the ammo
January 26th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
First thing. I was working hard on the concept of Fish Bum In A Box that Loop was building. The photoshop work was almost complete on December 31 08.
At the same time I have been working on a 180 deg. thesis of my own name TBA nothing to do with bums.
side note on Loop the AEG rods are being dumped on ebay as we speek.
Thanks Smithhammer.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Rest in peace trout bum
I can’t say that I’m sorry
kiss your ass goodbye
January 26th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
NICE…I blame it all on that crusty ol’ trout bum John Gierach…
January 26th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I’d probably rather fish with the dude in the picture than either the guy carrying the special edition ‘trout bum’ rod or the cat who sold it to him.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
At least Gierach was not a label-whoring fake like the modern-day trout bum wannabe. Hallelujah Buster, and good riddance to the phony-assed trout bum culture.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Over used? Hell yea.
but… how many wouldn’t mind bumming some rods, reels, lines, transport to various locales all on someone else’s dime? Or relaxing by in some high-end lodge by that stream stone fireplace with double casked 18 yr old single malt in your right hand, remote in the left, while Svetlana rubs away the days aches on your lower ten digits, flipping the big screen back and forth between a replay of Jim Plunkett and the Raiders romping on cry-baby Dick Vermeil’s Eagles in Super Bowl XV and The Daily show reruns? (How many times did Rod Martin intercept Jaworski? 3 times bitches)
AEG seems to have tried that and learned to some extent that you’ll need to spit and polish yer investors’ windscreens now and then, and maybe dance a jig… I’ll raise a PBR to ‘em.
Wait… guess PBR should take a dirt nap along with the “trout bum” too.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
But it could be worse. They could be pushing the Urban Outfitter/Urban Angler/Greenwich/Noe Valley metro hipster fashionista who knows what the new black is going to be but hasn’t a clue what a real stonefly looks like. Just saying.
January 27th, 2009 at 7:43 am
thanks wally like i needed to spend another ten minutes getting told i’m old and i don’t like yous punks hanging around anymore. this is fly = this is dreadful.
didn’t some asshole point this out years ago and then take a pile of crap about how you could fly to nz with couch change you just have to really want to? where’s the guy who said there was a cake being pooped on too?
now if you took some real bums to nz and tricked them out in the latest gear and showed them big fish they could eat if they caught you would have something. that i’d watch. does loop make spear guns?
January 27th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Amen!!
January 27th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Ok so I am not a bum - per se. but to me it means something completely different. My old man used to comment that if I was not working I was a “bum.” To him it was universal, regardless of the socioeconomic position of the person. He regularly referred to the non-working, trust fund, over indulgent, young, partying culture as a bunch of bums.
So for me, if it is not related to my work (which clearly running the TroutPad site and fishing in general are) I am being a bum. $500 waders and all.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Sounds like you have a job and fish when you can, like most people. That’s doesn’t make you a bum, despite whatever kind of heavy Puritan work ethic your Pops laid on you. Besides, I’m really referring to the industry here, using a tired stereotype to move product.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
dude, it’s like myspace for fishermen. I kept expecting some shitty hip-hop to blast out of my computer every time I clicked on a link.
Smith, he may be a bum.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Check for viruses.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
meh, it’s my work computer. Like I give a damn if it gets a virus.
I kept trying to write a message on this one chick’s wall, but the widget wasn’t working or something.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Give me gear and send me to Kamchatka and you can call me whatever you like.
January 27th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
“Wait… guess PBR should take a dirt nap along with the “trout bum” too.”
Don’t blame the PBR, blame the ‘tards (bums) that are paying 3.50 a pint for it.
January 27th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Could a fine Buster denizen point me in the direction of the thread where TiF first started getting shit on? I think I missed it and looks like I have some catching up to do. Thanks in advance.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
where’s the guy who said there was a cake being pooped on too?
HERE! Don’t care what you say, cake+poop=comedy.
Don’t blame the PBR, blame the ‘tards (bums) that are paying 3.50 a pint for it.
Wha huh? I’m guessing you’re not kidding.
This sounds like the work of the lizard people who made Rolling Rock (Old Latrine) fashionable.
I’ll take bar sponge squeezings for five dollars, Alex.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I wanted to say something like…
“By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: ‘Oh. He’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market.’ Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags.”
But Bill Hicks got there first
SBW
January 31st, 2009 at 4:13 pm
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